PROVINCES OF THE NETHERLANDS

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The modern day Netherlands are divided into twelve provinces (''provincies'' in Dutch).

Contents

Provinces

Structure

Historical background

The Departments of the French Period

See also

External links

Provinces

The twelve provinces are listed below with their capital city:

Province	Capital
Drenthe	Assen
Flevoland	Lelystad
Friesland	Leeuwarden
Gelderland	Arnhem
Groningen	Groningen
Limburg	Maastricht
North Brabant	's-Hertogenbosch
North Holland	Haarlem
Overijssel	Zwolle
South Holland	The Hague
Utrecht	Utrecht
Zeeland	Middelburg

Structure

A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the local municipalities, having the responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance. The government of each province consists of three major parts: the ''Provinciale Staten'' which is the provincial parliament elected every four years. Elected from its members are the ''Gedeputeerde Staten'', a college charged with most executive tasks, presided by the ''Commissaris van de Koningin'' or royal commissioner, appointed by the Crown.

Historical background

Nearly all Dutch provinces can trace their origin to a medieval state, such as a county or a duchy, as can the provinces of regions in Belgium. Their status changed when they came under a single ruler who centralised their administration, somewhat relegating the separate states to provinces, 17 in total. From these unified Netherlands, seven northern provinces would form the Republic of the Seven United Provinces in the 16th century, namely Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overijssel and Groningen. The Republic's lands also included Drenthe (one of the 17, but without the autonomous status of the others), and parts of Brabant, Limburg and Flanders, which were considered to be "conquered lands" and were governed directly by the ''Staten-Generaal'', the parliament, hence their name Generality Lands. They were called ''Staats-Brabant'', ''Staats-Limburg'' and ''Staats-Vlaanderen'', meaning "of the state". Each of these "Netherlands" had a high degree of autonomy, co-operating with each other mainly on defense and on the international level in general, but keeping to their own affairs elsewhere.
On January 1, 1796, during the Batavian Republic, Drenthe and Staats-Brabant became the eighth and ninth provinces of the Netherlands; the latter known as ''Bataafs Brabant'', Batavian Brabant, changing its name to ''Noord Brabant'', North Brabant, in 1815 when it became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which also contained (then) South Brabant, a province in Belgium. This new unified state featured the provinces in their modern form, as non-autonomous subdivisions of the national state, and again numbering 17 provinces, though not all the same as the 16th century ones. In 1839, with the independence of Belgium, the original single province of Limburg was divided amongst the two countries, each now having a province called Limburg. A year later, Holland, the largest and most populous of the Dutch provinces, was also split into two provinces for a total of 11. The 12th member was to be Flevoland, a province consisting almost entirely of reclaimed land, established on January 1, 1986.

The Departments of the French Period

During the Batavian Republic, the Netherlands were from 1798 to 1801 completely reorganised into 8 new departments, most named after rivers, inspired by the French revolutionary example, in an attempt to do away with the old autonomous provincial status. They are listed below, with their capitals and the territory of the former provinces they mostly incorporated:

'Batavian Departments'

English name	Dutch name	Capital	Contained the territory of
Department of the Ems	''Departement van de Eems''	Leeuwarden	Northern Friesland, Groningen
Department of the Old IJssel	''Departement van de Oude IJssel''	Zwolle	Southern Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Northern Gelderland
Department of the Rhine	''Departement van de Rijn''	Arnhem	Central Gelderland, eastern Utrecht
Department of the Amstel	''Departement van de Amstel''	Amsterdam	The area around Amsterdam
Department of Texel	''Departement van Texel''	Alkmaar	Northern Holland minus Amsterdam, northwestern Utrecht
Department of the Delft	''Departement van de Delft''	Delft	Southern Holland up to the Meuse, southwestern Utrecht
Department of the Dommel	''Departement van de Dommel''	's-Hertogenbosch	The eastern part of Batavian Brabant, southern Gelderland
Department of the Scheldt and Meuse	''Departement van de Schelde en Maas''	Middelburg	Zeeland, Holland south of the Meuse and the western part of Batavian Brabant

After only three years, following a coup d'etat, the borders of the former provinces were restored, though not their autonomous status. They were now also called "departments" and Drenthe was added to Overijssel. In 1806 the Kingdom of Holland replaced the republic to further French interests. It was during this administration that Holland was first split in two, with the department of ''Amstelland'' to the north and that of ''Maasland'' to the south. East Frisia, then as now in Germany, was added to the kingdom as a department in 1807 and Drenthe split off again making a total of 11 departments.
When the Netherlands finally did become fully part of France in 1810, the departments of the kingdom and their borders were largely maintained, with some joined together. They were however nearly all renamed, again mainly after rivers, though the names differed from their Batavian counterparts. Following are their names and the modern day province they corresponded for the most part to:

'French Departments in the Netherlands'

English name	French name	Dutch name	Modern province(s)
Department of the Zuiderzee	''Département du Zuyderzée''	''Departement van de Zuiderzee''	North Holland & Utrecht
Department of the Mouths of the Meuse	''Département des Bouches-de-la-Meuse''	''Departement van de Monden van de Maas''	South Holland
Department of the Mouths of the Scheldt	''Département des Bouches-de-l'Escaut''	''Departement van de Monden van de Schelde''	Zeeland
Department of the Two Nethes	''Département des Deux-Nèthes''	''Departement van de Twee Nethen''	Western North Brabant & Antwerp
Department of the Mouths of the Rhine	''Département des Bouches-du-Rhin''	''Departement van de Monden van de Rijn''	Eastern North Brabant & southern Gelderland
Department of the Upper IJssel	''Département de l'Yssel-Supérieur''	''Departement van de Boven IJssel''	Northern Gelderland
Department of the Mouths of the IJssel	''Département des Bouches-de-l'Yssel''	''Departement van de Monden van de IJssel''	Overijssel
Department of Frisia	''Département de la Frise''	''Departement Friesland''	Friesland
Department of the Western Ems	''Département de l'Ems-Occidental''	''Departement van de Wester Eems''	Groningen & Drenthe
Department of the Eastern Ems	''Département de l'Ems-Oriental''	''Departement van de Ooster Eems''	(East-Frisia)

With the defeat and withdrawal of the French in 1813, the old provinces and their names were re-established, Holland was reunited and East-Frisia went its separate way. The 17 provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands were for a significant part based on the former French departments and their borders, in particular in what would later become Belgium.

See also

★

★ List of subnational entities

★ Flags of provinces of the Netherlands

External links

★ Population and area figures

★ Basic data for each province, with links to official province sites

★

★ Municipality data by province